In the domain of food and drink processing machines, devices are known by means of which a frozen confectionery product such as an ice cream product may be prepared by mixing the ingredients in a dedicated vessel, and cooling the mixture for a predefined amount of time. This preparation procedure has however several drawbacks. In particular, all the ingredients must be mixed previously, the volume of such machines corresponds usually to five or more serving portions of the same flavor and the time necessary is about a half an hour. Moreover, the ingredients necessary for the preparation come in contact with a large number of parts of the preparation machine (e.g. a stirrer, tanks, or a dispenser), which all have to be cleaned.
There is a demand for increasing the convenience of the preparation of cool confectionery or desserts, in particular, reducing the preparation time, avoiding the hassle of cleaning the surfaces in contact with food and providing on demand an appealing texture and diversity of products.
There is also a demand for offering to consumers a range of different freshly made cooled products, in an automated and well controlled manner.
Machines such as sorbet makers have been developed with stirrer having essentially for function to aerate the product while cooling it and so to ensure a smooth texture and an increase of the product volume. For frozen confectionery, the crystallization of liquid happens progressively while the large crystals are broken down constantly by the stirrer. Generally, the machine and its stirrer must be cleaned and it generally half an hour to make the frozen product.
WO 2010/149509 relates to a system for preparing freshly made single portion of frozen confectionary product, the system comprising a cylindrical container designed for being inserted into a dedicated preparation device having a heat exchange portion, said container comprising at least one scraper constituting stirring means movable within the container and ingredients for producing a frozen confectionary when being cooled and moved. The stirring means of the container are arranged to provide a rotational and axially oscillating movement within the container. Thereby, the scraper is arranged coaxial with the container body.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,878,021 relates to an ice-cream maker comprising a blade member constituting stirring means arranged in a double-walled container, and a housing containing a driving mechanism that can generate a blade-rotating movement in relation to the double-walled container. The inner wall forms a tub, and the blade having the form of a spoon is used to scrape the inner wall. The movement of the blade member is obtained by maintaining the blade member static and offset with a scraping surface thereof parallel to the inner surface of the container and by driving the container in rotation around its central axis.
US20060263490 relates to a frozen confectionery maker comprising a cup, a cup holder having a rotating coupling for rotatably engaging the cup and a removable stirrer fixedly positioned with the housing above the cup holder for stirring the confectionery mixture in the cup as the cup is rotated by the rotatable coupling.
It is known from the state of the art, as per document U.S. Pat. No. 5,363,746 A a kitchen appliance which enables automatic preparation of desserts according to instructions pre-programmed into the appliance. Document EP 2266418 A1 describes a device for preparing frozen confection in a container comprising the ingredients for the preparation of the frozen product, which will be moved and cooled in the device. Document WO 2012/122594 A1 of the state of the art describes an ice-cream maker comprising a rotatable paddle, the operation of which is controlled by a processor module. Also known are for example document WO 99/21466 A1, which describes a blending apparatus comprising an integral blender which processes the product inside, and EP 0162023 A2 describing a household appliance comprising means for sensing the ice-cream consistency.
Therefore, the present invention generally aims at proposing a machine able to produce a variety of freshly made cooled, aerated or whipped food products, conveniently and in an automated and controlled manner, while reducing the preparation time.